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Talk:Unknown Aggressors/@comment-37765878-20190331225831
The Gates that "hurt" them and why it doesn't seem to be the actual problem- When it's the Gates that poses the problem, then a viable cause of action should be assumed to resolve this same problem effecitvely. Let's contemplate this Unknown Agressor for a moment by trying to comprehent its motives with a logic that must be causally linked to our universe (it's close enough that it seemed logically sound to them to kill off the Ring Builders): There are multiple possible solutions to this (I will talk about the two most ovbious ones). The most simplest one would be asking the Ring Builders - back in the day - to stop using the Gates, or at least find out what's the problem with their technology and fix it. The reason this should be the easiest way to resolve the issue, is: Logically, genocide is a more provocative act than attempted truce and resolution of the problem. An interstellar war is a ruinous endeavour - an interdimensional one even more so. It should be highly advisable to avoid such confrontations at all costs - unless you're a genocidal lunatic who gets a kick out of killing off entire Type 3 galactic civilizations (if the ring builders could invent this technology, all the other possible intelligences in the universe could do that too at some point). This problem would get worse with the aging universe, because in the future, far more heavy elements will be available for the formation of earthlike planets - which will multiply the possibility of emerging galactic civilizations everywhere in that same universe... are the Unknown Aggressors willing to wait that long and kill off everybody who will inevitable emerge? Even if time as a reference frame is not the issue here, the plethora of civilizations that will emerge during the entire stellar phase of the universe (probably a timespan of roughly 100 trillion - yes trillion! - years), will rise to become the same problem like the Ring-Builders posed to the Unknown Aggressor. The Ring-Builders, along with humanity, were just among the very first in this astonishingly young universe. Waiting for the problem to arise again and again would increase the likelyhood of getting defeated... not a good or efficient way to solve the problem they see in using Ring-Gate-Technology. Another, less efficient way, to deal with it, is indeed killing off the disturbance. But then it should be logically sound to destroy the technology that causes the problem too. They did not do that. They just killed off the Ring-Builders, and left the machines be. This is why I say the Unknown Aggressor doesn't actually have solely a problem with the technology (as opposed to the implications made by the Author of the series), because if they had, they would have destroyed it - and not just the Ring-Builders as a species. Another thing is: Lying dormant until someone kicks you in the groin (like with the antimatter warhead carried through a gate) is a dubious cause of action. The underlying problem of the Unknown Aggressor ostensibly is the Ring-Gate Technology (interdimensional technology or whatever). But even with their attack on the Medina Station and other human installations, they left the Ring-Builder technology untouched (with an exception of some ring-gates, but why stop there?), the usage of which is arguably the reason for their aggressive behavior. That doesn't make sense, because if this is the problem, the solution is so simple, that even a sub-sophont sentient like a chimp would understand it: Destroy the object that poses the problem. And for us, to avoid a confrontation, this means: Don't use Ring-Technology. Relatively easy solutions in both cases. So, the motives of the Uknown Aggressor are either incomprehensible, illogical or they just plain suck at problem-solving. If this lack of strategical prowess is all the Unknown Aggressor can exert upon their perceived enemies, then they are too stupid to be an actual existential threat for us.